The motel we were staying at, had a basement kitchen and dining room so Ian resurrected his chefs skills and cooked up a storm (bacon & eggs) for breakfast. Keith arrived sartorially elegant as always (see photo) and we had a hearty feed to start the day.
Then the adventure continued. The plan for today was to ride South over the next two days, heading for Albany in New York state where we are going to store our bikes at Ronnies Motorcycles.
Within a few miles Keiths bike indicated it wasnt going to play ball, missing and the electrics playing up. At this stage it kept running albeit roughly, however within 25 miles it stopped all together. We had a tech meeting on the side of the road. Deciding that it probably wasnt charging, and the new battery had gone flat, it was obvious the alternator, rectifier or perhaps the stator was puckarood and there was nothing to be done about this on the roadside. The upshot was Bryan towed Keith the 5 miles back to Rangeley being the nearest town. (This has happened before somewhere)
bike to an Arctic Cat dealer (snow mobiles) where the technician put a meter on the battery and confirmed it wasnt charging. Keith decided the best thing to do, was rent a U Haul van and drive it back to Ronnies with the bike in the back.
The Arctic Cat tech told us the nearest place to get a U haul was in Auburn. Basically, on our route South, but 85 miles away. Keith phoned around and found a local salvage/wrecker who did car & motorcycle transportation. Shortly thereafter Keiths bike was loaded on a truck (with Keith) and on their way to Auburn with Keiths wallet $US350 lighter.
Talking to the tech at Arctic Cat who was preparing snowmobiles for the season, I asked him about the snow mobile season and the amount of snow they get. Season officially starts 15th December but nothing much happens until January when they get between 7 & 15 feet of snow!!! The last couple of seasons have been awesome, according to him and some days they have to use a snow plough to get to work. Must be Global Warming!
get a U Haul but got a Budget Rentals van. We all met in Auburn, loaded the bike up and drove to a medium sized town ...Sanford which is near our originally planned destination for today of Lebanon. We rode off the motorway, so through small towns and villages. This whole area is beautiful. Lakes, very nice houses with manicured gardens and lawns and definitely an area you would be happy to live in. on driving here in the van is that American drivers are very courteous and will yield (as they say) at the drop of a hat. We have noticed this everywhere, they drive and yield as though they have all the time in the world. The other thing we noticed is school buses. All similar design and bright yellow. When they stop to let kids on or off they have a lot of flashing lights and traffic traveling both to a halt until the kids are off the bus and have crossed the road.
All up today we did 180 miles (300kms) in a variety of vehicles but we are here according to our schedule.
